Julia brought back two beers from the kitchen, and handed one of the bottles over to Marina. She was in a fairly decent mood, which may have been helped by Marina's choice of take-out, the beer, and the fact that there weren't anymore of those damned vultures to contend with. Sure, Kady still wasn't talking to her, but Julia had at least given her an idea to try, Fen was feeling better, Margo was okay, and she hadn't had any stupid ideas about trying to deal with grief she didn't need to have yet in at least a week.
Curling up on one end of the couch, she asked Marina, "So are you going to tell me about that time you beat someone to death with a shovel?" Because yes, she had read that, and yes, she wanted to know.
Marina, for all her faults, knew that the fact that Kady was around, but wasn’t around was bothering Julia, but she didn’t poke at it because she didn’t want poking back. She’d revealed a lot recently and she wasn’t entirely keen on discussing most of it.
“Well, we were in Tombstone and this asshole tried to start shit, so I ended it.” Which was only half of the truth. The other half being that he’d actually hurt Julia. “I sprained my shoulder, too. It was a stupid injury, but I don’t regret it.”
"No magic?" Julia asked, musing at how Marina could gloss over a story like it was nothing, but was really about her killing someone in a rather brutal fashion. She wasn't sure asking follow-ups would give her more details, or if she even wanted them.
"This was tied to Tumbleweed?" What else would it be, really?
“No magic,” she agreed, rolling her eyes. It was a pain in the ass. Sure, she knew how to shoot a gun, but did she really need to? Also she didn’t have a gun and the man deserved to be shoveled to death. A blunt force death was enough to deal with her anger and most of the other feelings that crept up when she saw Julia on the ground and hurt. She would have killed anyone that looked at her in that moment probably.
“Yeah. Lots of dumb shit happened in Texas. It was one of those things. Like here, but with cruises that can turn you into a cyborg or whatever.” She shrugged it off like it wasn’t that big of a deal.
"Was I with you?" Julia asked, suddenly curious. Though was it weird that she assumed she might be? They were friends there, clearly. But she didn't really know the extent of it, other than she had known her Marina enough to recognize that this one had cared about the other version of her. "Never mind," she added quickly. "I'm not her so that's kind of a weird question."
Though it brought up another, one she didn't voice because she didn't really want to know the answer.
“A version of you.” Which was...the truth of it. It was easier than casually mixing the two together because there were separate entities now. One was...well…Julia and the other was...Julia. She probably needed to assign them timeline numbers in her head. Or some sort of distinction. “You don’t have to get weird every time you mention the other you. It’s you but not. It’s whatever.”
It wasn’t exactly whatever, but Marina wasn’t going to state that. “Anyway. That place always had things to fight. Kind of like here. And then there was normal shit. And then there was stupid shit like the singing cartoons showing up. And once I was older and a man. I have pictures.”
"Yeah," Julia said. "I get that." Marina was Marina but not. Probably it was good in some ways that she wasn't from Julia's own timeline but that didn't stop Julia from wanting that closure. To be able to apologize, which she hadn't really had time for…
There was no sense in thinking about that, and she really needed to stop letting her train of thought go there if she wanted to keep hanging out with the Marina she did have available to her. Fortunately, Marina being Marina, she was good at distraction.
"Okay, what?"
That seemed to do the trick and stop further questions about her fighting with a shovel. She felt successful about it. “Yeah. It happened twice. I mean, I never remember is really outside of the comments and the series of pictures and the lack of information.” Like she didn’t know that she’d be here. Maybe she was there and here. Or the future wasn’t all that set in stone. There were possible futures and maybe knowing about the future changed things a little. Maybe that’s why she never told herself anything.
She reached for her phone and pulled up the pictures, searching through more pictures of FB than she cared to admit to until she found one. "I maybe have naked selfies, but those are for my own personal amusement and I won’t share them with just anyone.”
Julia peered at the photo and then at Marina, laughing at the expression on gender swapped Marina's face. "Has that ever happened here?" she asked, not knowing how she felt about potentially not being herself. "You've lived a really weird life, Marina. Like if I hadn't ended up here I don't think I'd even believe you."
Marina smirked. “At least I’m a hot man, right?” She shook her head at the question, though. “I mean, not that I’ve seen. I haven’t been a man here. Maybe I will be sometime, though.” Cause these places sure liked a genderswap and a time jump. “Anyway. It’s possible it happened before I showed up. You could probably ask if you want to know for sure.” She shrugged at the remark about her life. “I mean, yeah. But what else is new? It wasn’t a normal one from the start.”
Julia shrugged. "I've already gone from human to goddess, that's hopefully enough." But yes, she could agree that life hadn't been normal for any of them. At least, not for her since magic had entered her life.
"Hey, you've watched the future… have you watched the rest?" she asked. Margo had warned her that the books and show existed, and she'd watched two scenes, essentially, which had been enough. But Julia was also naturally curious so she wanted to know how much of her life was out there.
And she’d go back to a sort of in between again, but Marina kept that from her for now. It was possible she already knew about it, but Marina also wasn’t sure she wanted to ask what she knew and what she didn’t know at this point. She knew about Coldwater.
“I didn’t want anyone but me to spoil the future for me and I basically trust you all about as much as I trust...well...anyone. Which is not really at all.” She shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “I mean, for most people, I definitely don’t suggest it, but Eleanor and I sat through her entire show, so…” Another shrug. “She was a lot more depressed after our show. That’s for sure.”
"How about you?" Julia asked, looking at Marina, momentarily setting aside the reason she brought it up in the first place since that was merely self-interest. She didn't ask specifically about Anna, but since Marina had mentioned she watched it, not lived it, it was implied.
Marina shrugged again. It was going to be less convincing if she kept doing it, but she couldn’t really stop herself. “I’ve had worse. Certainly not the ‘getting a happy ending’ sort of situation, but I’m pretty sure those don’t actually exist and people are lying to themselves and everyone else about it.” Except that Eleanor had kind of gotten that, hadn’t she? Until she ended up here and whatever she had was taken away. “Your friends got in my way which is no surprise. Eliot is a bit touched. I mean, kind of always was, but wow.” Her eyes widened a touch at that. “Kady and Alice forced me into a Word As Bond sort of. I feel like I was under the influence technically.” The influence of trance healing and being a generally “good person”. At least it definitely seemed like they did the Word as Bond first and THEN undid the trance healing, but she could be wrong.
Julia barely followed any of that, having to draw on her memory of what Margo has told her while piecing in the vague details Marina was giving her. But none of that seemed to involve Anna except not getting the happier ever after situation. So now, she asked. "And Anna?"
She hesitated a moment before adding, "You seemed like you could use someone who would listen." She gave Marina a small shrug of her own.
“Eleanor saw it, so you know…” She didn’t really want to talk about Anna any more than she had already because she’d grown almost immediately cold about her. Some people she could warm back up to, but she wouldn’t let herself warm back up to Anna.
“It’s nothing really. Just one of those things. We were a thing in 23 and it didn’t work out and then she was dead. When I found her again in 40, I figured it was fine to use what I knew to get me through and mostly it worked out for me until it didn’t.” She kept her tone casual. “I put together a heist and your friends fucked me over. Then I decided to try without it anyway and someone got killed. So she got mad about it.” Which was probably a fair reaction. “I tried to make it right, but she basically was a real bitch about it. It wasn’t like I was part of the Wonder Team’s heist for me. I got shit out of it. Also known as fucking nothing. So how the fuck was that beneficial to me?” It wasn’t. But fucking Word as Bond, right?
“Anyway. The long and short of it is that she found out, accused me of cheating, and basically thought I only gave a shit because of the stupid trance healing she wanted me to get.” She shrugged again. “But you know. I’ve been away from home for about two or so years? So it’s not really huge for me.” And she kept her tone bordering on bored because even years in different worlds didn’t stop seeing it from hurting. “So...that’s that and I’ve been over it since like forever now, so we don’t need to get into it.”
"Two timelines, huh?" That reminded her somewhat of what Margo had told her about her future, something she still refused to believe or follow if Penny-23 showed up. But she also had the advantage of knowing both then and now.
Julia considered Marina, remembering how her own had told her she didn't let many people get too close to her. And this one had lost everyone, and everything, pretty much. Hadn't even been able to stay in her own timeline because there was nothing left. The fact that she'd then forged a life from nothing didn't surprise her. Any Marina was bound to be one of the strongest, most resilient, people she knew. It was that confidence and bravado that had inspired Julia when she'd first been accepted into the safehouse.
She just wasn't buying it now.
"Yeah, you know, it's fine that you're not. That shit hurts. Especially for someone who tends to keep everyone at a distance otherwise."
“Two,” she agreed. But none of that mattered because Anna was mad that she’d kept things from her and generally done shitty things, but then turned around and wanted her to be an entirely different person in order to qualify for receiving love from her. It seemed like a backwards sort of thing. Sure, wanting her to change and repent for the shit she did wasn’t far fetched, but the fact that she wanted her to do the trance healing, which she did, seemed off.
“It’s nothing, really. Can’t remember things in a rosy light. She’s basically dead to me now.”
Again, Julia considered Marina, but this time it was to determine how much she was going to share. "It's hard to put any stock in a future you haven't lived, anyway. I mean, mine really kind of sucks, apparently. Or is just confusing, like how I ended up with Penny from your timeline. With a kid…"
She shrugged. "I don't think we're bound by that here so how much does it actually matter?" She took a long drink. "Can't say I ever would have imagined myself with Iron Man, either," Julia admitted, her amusement at the idea evident.
Marina lightly snorted. “I still can’t believe you’d date that creep after he just kissed you out of nowhere without warning or explanation.” It seemed like a weird choice to make. She neglected to mention the fact that they’d both fucked each other over in some way and yet were fine with having a baby together and everything. “And he just immediately teleported into somewhere with an actual newborn.” She shook her head.
But the mention of Tony made her sober slightly. “Yeah. I didn’t get that at first either, but…” She shrugged. “I guess he’s okay. Really annoying when he’s younger, though. I considered strangling him a few times.”
"If someone had told me…" Julia started to say, but then laughed and shook her head while taking another sip from the bottle. "Never mind. But that's weird. And if Kady ever talks to me again, definitely not anything I'm bringing up." Even if it was a Penny from a different timeline. That hadn't seemed to matter to him about her.
"The entire timeline thing is weird to me, anyway," Julia mused.
“You’re the one that did the whole timeline adventure.” She shrugged slightly. “But there’s also a timeline with no magic. In that it existed, but it was illegal and you could get killed for using it. At least I am pretty sure you could. It had that vibe.” And she didn’t trust people either way.
“Speaking of timelines…” Marina looked at Julia quietly for a moment. “If Henry shows up with burns on his hands, immediately make sure someone knocks him out because that’s a Fogg no one wants to deal with.” He was already enough of an asshole before, but that one? That one would do his best to fuck up the entire world to get what he wanted.
"Yeah but do you ever think about how they were counting on a very small group of people, most of who had just discovered we had magic, to defeat the beast? Like aren't there master magicians that could have figured that one out? Why'd they go all grad school Harry Potter on us?"
But then Marina mentioned Fogg, and Julia regarded her curiously. "Anything else I should know?"
“Because...I don’t know. I wasn’t ever actually part of the equation for the most part. I mean, I was there technically, but never in the same capacity as you guys. Never part of that whole...thing. Henry’s basically Dumbledore. You think he’s a somewhat flawed, but ultimately good person and then it turns out, he’s been a manipulative asshole all along.” She shrugged. “It’s not that surprising all things considered.”
Marina considered the question. “I don’t know. Probably just that. That’s really the main thing.”
"Noted," Julia replied. She didn't particularly want to see Fogg show up either, any one of them, for exactly the reasons Marina had listed.
"So do you think I'd actually be able to teach with you?" she asked. "Otherwise, I'd better find another job. In case I have to buy any more swords." She grinned, because she sort of had a fondness toward it now, even if she much preferred magic for most battles. And she much preferred the idea of teaching collaborative magic with Marina to figuring something else out. Though she might still need to think about a secondary job.
"Thank you, by the way. For the sword, and for having my back."
Marina studied Julia for a long moment. “Yeah. I think so. Dorian probably isn’t about to tell me no. We can figure out a lesson plan moving forward. I’ve started already with what I have, so I can show it to you and we can go from there.” She was quiet for a moment. “Do you think it’d be frowned upon if we taught them how to steal?” It probably was. The real question was how much did she care?
“Yeah yeah. You probably would have been fine with a shovel, but since you seemed set on it, someone had to make sure you didn’t bankrupt yourself.”
Julia smiled at that. "We don't teach them how to steal. We teach them all of the different spells that make up the elements of how to steal, and if they happen to put them together? We're not responsible for what they do with that magic."
That brought the conversation back to shovels, and she grinned. "You were an absolute beast with that shovel, and now I know where you learned."
Marina considered it for a moment before nodding. “Fair.” Why should she control what adults did? She definitely wasn’t here to be their parent or even, strictly speaking, a role model. She was pretty sure the Mafia Coven didn’t need any help, but they probably weren’t having any issues in regards to stealing.
“Well, yeah. Glad I didn’t pull a muscle this time.” She shrugged. “You can only dream of being so awesome. I know. It’s hard.”
"I mean, I am a goddess," Julia pointed out. "That has to be pretty cool? And because I am, I want to try some different things out when we actually start working on magic. See what's different, if anything?"
Marina rolled her eyes. “There’s like three or four of those. It’s old hat.” Except that it was kind of amazing. She just liked the concept that she was the most dangerous one in the room. “Yeah. Okay. We can do that. You shouldn’t destroy yourself from overuse of magic anyway. We could see how it goes.”
"Now?" Julia asked, raising a brow. Not that she was eager to get started or anything.
Marina stared at her for a moment. “Maybe not now. But soon. We’ll get to it soon. After sleep and less alcohol. I’ve seen what happened with Ghost Two and I don’t really need to deal with that even on a very slight level.”
"Ghost two?" Julia asked. "At some point you're just going to need to fill me in so I can follow your nicknames for everyone." But Marina had a point. Julia felt rather invincible but that wasn't a reason to be reckless, especially if she was bringing someone else into it.
She took another drink, and sat there for a while, staring into the bottle. "You ever just feel restless?" she asked after a moment, glancing up at Marina. "There was almost no magic at home when I left, and now I'm here and this place is just so full of it. And that's where normally I'd have Kady there to just… explore it all. But," she laughed, somewhat bitterly, "I was working on getting magic back at home and kinda forgot what was more important…"
Marina considered it for a moment. “Just these ghosts in the library at Brakebills. Replayed their...deaths or whatever. It was super awkward to walk in on.” She wasn’t sure it was necessary to outright explain it and it would only really come up if she got her memories of that time back anyway. And at that point, she’d hopefully get over it.
“Yeah. We didn’t really have easy access to magic. Ambient magic, sure, but anything bigger? Took something more. So now hedges have to fight even harder to get magic, which is a pain in the ass.” The deal with Irene McCallister wasn’t because she didn’t like Julia’s friends or anything. She just didn’t have a personal attachment to any of them and it was the easiest way to get magic. She wasn’t really sorry about it because if they weren’t disguised to hide them from a murderous monster, they probably would have done whatever they could, too. “But I usually had someone around back in Tumbleweed and Dorian agreed to throw things at me so I could destroy them. But I guess I’ve kept pretty busy most of the time here.”
Julia knew vaguely about that from Margo so she was able to follow along. But it also struck a chord with her. She'd been on a quest to get magic back, focused on that. Now, she had more magic than she knew what to do with, but at least she could learn, and find other ways to focus her attention. Part of her wondered if she was also feeling the effects of being torn from her world, while in the process of figuring out what she was supposed to do with her own magic.
"Thanks," she said. "I need to find ways to keep myself busy."
Marina shrugged. “We can work on some things and at least take up some of the time. The rest of it is your business. I can’t hold your hand all the time.” She allowed for the hint of a smile to let Julia know it was a joke. “Until then, let’s finish our beer and discuss anything other than my life.”